Thanks to John Smallman.
What Do Modern Crop Pictures Mean?
https://www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/WHAT%20DO%20MODERN%20CROP%20PICTURES%20MEAN.html
Arguments against the reality of modern crop pictures by the sceptics show no detailed knowledge whatsoever
Now in addition to this persistent debunking of modern crop pictures by most large media organizations, probably at the behest of governments, there have also been supplementary if somewhat superfluous criticisms by a loosely organized collection of people who call themselves “sceptics”. A great many of those sceptical websites can simply be ignored, especially if they cite Wikipedia or the 1991 Doug and Dave story (see below) as proof of their intellectual correctness. Nevertheless, in order to give them a fair hearing, we tried to find the best possible website that advocates pure scepticism regarding modern crop pictures, and came up with the following:
“This is one of the three best sceptical websites, written by Professor Rory Coker of the Physics Department at the University of Texas. Believers in the supernatural wonder of crop circles never bother to take a clothesline and a broomstick, to see how simple it is to make a circle precisely like the ones they find inexplicable” (see www.skeptically.org). As proof of their their theory, they next cite this explanatory diagram of how all modern crop circles are made (see www.unmuseum.org):
slide 2: explanation by a skeptic
Well, there is still nothing there to be concerned about! Professor Coker seems not to have put nearly as much time or effort into studying crop pictures, as for his regular and respected research into particle physics. A little more intelligent argument (intended to debunk Milk Hill of 2001) was given on WATCH, but see time2007j for the true facts of the matter.
Other sceptics have made fairly rudimentary attempts to create authentic crop pictures as a test of the human faker hypothesis. Yet they have never apparently examined the real ones in Wiltshire, in order to understand what they are trying to replicate. Thus all such efforts appear lame at best (see https://web.archive.org). Likewise, the Committee for Sceptical Inquiry proposed four testable hypotheses concerning modern crop pictures in 2002, but none of those seem to be even remotely supported by new field observations as of 2008 (see www.csicop.org/si/2002-09/crop-circles.html).
Trying to find a more recent comment from those sceptics, we found this rather emotional outburst in the Bristol Daily Press on July 30, 2008: “Your researcher has no scientific background, and the same counts for all of that other so-called scientific research on crop circles. Researchers like them are only interested in two things: money and attention” (see www.thisisbristol.co.uk). Yet the primary author of this review is a well-respected professional scientist, who has never taken even one cent for his lengthy research into the subject, nor has ever sought any public attention.
One is reminded here of the adage: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a ditch?” In other words, unless someone actually (a) observes the experimental phenomenon first-hand for themselves, or (b) gains a sound idea of the concepts that are being expressed there, then their opinions are essentially worthless: especially if swallowed whole from another third-party source, without applying any critical evaluation as to whether that third party might be telling the truth?
We can use evidence-based empiricism to find out the real truth concerning modern crop pictures
The best approach for finding out the truth, concerning any difficult or controversial matter, is known as evidence-based empiricism. It was discussed cleverly by John Locke in his famous Essay on Human Understanding (1689), by using the analogy of a king from the tropics who did not believe that water could freeze in far northern latitudes on Earth (see oregonstate.edu):
“A Dutch ambassador was entertaining the King of Siam about certain peculiarities of Holland, and told him among other things that the water in his country would sometimes become so hard in cold weather that men could walk on it, and that it would bear an elephant if he were there. To which the King replied, ‘Until now I have believed the strange things you told me, because I look upon you as a sober fair man. But now I am sure you are lying.’ “
Well, the pond water does freeze hard in Holland or England during winter, no matter what some king from the tropics might think! And there also are plenty of non-human-made crop pictures that appear mysteriously there in summer. We have seen or studied many of them ourselves, in close experimental detail. Furthermore, we can now understand most of the concepts that they express. The insightful reader may therefore peruse this essay empirically, with regard to detailed experimental facts, in order to decide whether we are telling the truth, or else those sceptics and his TV?
Most academic scientists are sincere, honest people, and not accustomed to dealing with intellectual fraud. Hence the prospect that some ill-defined group of international media organizations might be conspiring, to keep the truth from being publicly known about modern crop pictures, simply terrifies them. Even English scientists who live near Wiltshire are often afraid to go out into the fields to inspect some new crop picture, for fear that the opinion of their peers will turn against them: leaving them unable to obtain research grants, or to publish papers in major journals. That is just what Asch found back in 1951, during his famous conformity experiment!
In any case, since this subject is of great importance for the people of Earth, we will provide below a new and updated synthesis of field data and plausible interpretations for the end of 2008. There should be no need for the casual reader to go back and read lots of earlier work on the subject, although many useful references will be cited wherever relevant. This new synthesis should not be construed to represent anymore than our own considered opinions, having studied the subject jointly for many years, although it seems to be increasingly accepted by others in the field.
(This is a very long article and, rather than post it all here, we direct you to the remainder on the page itself:
https://www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/WHAT%20DO%20MODERN%20CROP%20PICTURES%20MEAN.html.)